Early this morning VMware released the results for the VMware vExpert 2017 programme. Before even seeing the post, I woke up to a couple of slack messages with congrats (I’m currently on holiday and also on the Gold Coast, 1 hour behind my normal time zone!). I checked out the official post (link below) and sure enough my name is listed there, along with 1400 odd other people! From what I’ve seen there were around 100 new members in 2017. Congratulations to all new and renewed members. I’m the 4th vExpert working for ViFX, a big congratulations to my vExpert colleagues Bayu Wibowo, Nick Bowie and Steven Kang.
I’m thrilled to have been accepted into the programme and community. While the ‘bullet point’ benefits of the program are great incentives, I’m eager to keep driving in the avenues I have started and also being able to expand into other evangelism / advocacy avenues that may present themselves now that I am a vExpert. Since shifting my career away from generalised Windows Sysadmin, I’ve seen several comments and opinions over the past 12-18 months in regards to the vExpert programme, and while taking all of these on board I’m interested to come in with a fresh mind and build my own perspective. When you read through the list of names of vExperts, you quickly realise you are now a member of a community of a bunch of guys and girls that have some of the brightest minds, who genuinely care and are there to help, advocate and give back to the community. Something to strive towards.
For me, achieving vExpert is where the journey starts.
A huge thanks to Corey Romero and the team behind the vExpert program.
https://blogs.vmware.com/vmtn/2017/02/vexpert-2017-award-announcement.html
What is the vExpert Programme?
Overview
The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap. The awards are for individuals, not companies, and last for one year. Employees of both customers and partners can receive the awards. In the application, we consider various community activities from the previous year as well as the current year’s (only for 2nd half applications) activities in determining who gets awards. We look to see that not only were you active but are still active in the path you chose to apply for. Sign up to be notified once 2017 Second Half vExpert Applications Open vExpert Notification When Applications are Open
Criteria
If you are interested in becoming a vExpert the criteria is simple. We are looking for IT Professionals who are sharing their VMware knowledge and contributing that back to the community. The see the term “giving back” as defined as going above and beyond your day job. There are several ways to share your knowledge and engage with the community. Some of those activities are blogging, book authoring, magazine articles, CloudCred task writing, active in facebook groups, forum (VMTN as well as other non VMware) platforms, public speaking, VMUG leadership, videos and so on. Sign up to be notified once 2017 Second Half vExpert Applications Open vExpert Notification When Applications are Open